Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Top ten war memoirs

This was the first book about the war in Afghanistan I could properly relate to. Patrick Hennessey trained with me at Sandhurst and we served in Iraq at the same time. In The Junior Officers’ Reading Club he brings to life what it was like to join the army in the post 9/11 world, with the promise that we, unlike the previous generation, would get to fight. When reality fails to live up to expectations on a relatively peaceful tour in Iraq, the author’s frustration begins to build. He finally gets everything he joined for and more when he reaches Helmand.